CHAPTER 30
A UTAH RAPTORS CHRISTMAS
Barry convinced me to go with him to a Christmas party hosted at one of his teammate’s house, despite me telling him many times that doing so would send the message that I was his girlfriend, which, need I remind him, I was not?
I didn’t need to remind him, he’d said. He was woefully aware. But girlfriend or not, he wanted me there anyway, and if not me, then he said he wanted his daughter there, and I wouldn’t rob his daughter of her first team party, would I?
Turns out, I would not.
When I agreed to attend, he’d kissed my head in a way that made me remind him again that I wasn’t his girlfriend as he walked out of his room smiling.
This is how I ended up wearing the red dress with bows that Kate picked for me and a pair of her shoes, a size bigger than my usual—the swelling feet came for me full force—as Barry and I waltzed up to the Nilson’s very large place of residence.
“Fancy,” I observed as we walked to the tall, modern front door. Barry’s hand rested on the small of my back, and I held a plate of homemade turtle pretzels. He’d never had this most rudimentary holiday treat composed of a pretzel, a melted Rolo, and a pecan, and I had to chide him for eating too many of them before getting to the party.
Barry rang the doorbell, then picked up a curled strand of hair from my shoulder again, running it through his fingertips.
“You look pretty in red,” he said for the fifth time.
“Thank you,” I whispered again. Usually I thought green was my color, or maybe a teal blue, but his insistence that he loved the red had me wishing I had more warm-toned clothes. To be fair, though, he loved me in the green dress, too.
Not because I wanted him to always look at me with starry eyes or anything. Not at all.
The door swinging open interrupted our eye contact, and we both turned to meet the very excited face of Trevor O’Neil.
“Hannah!” he shouted, and pulled me into an excited hug, careful not to smush the plate in my hand. “Merry Christmas. Glad you forgave us for demo-ing half of your house and exposing mold in the process.”
“I suppose I should thank you for that last part.”
O’Neil walked us into the house after giving Barry a hug, too. He was a good five inches shorter than Barry but wrapped his arms around Barry’s waist and picked him a few inches up off the ground, making me laugh and my nerves lessen immediately.
O’Neil pointed to the plate in my hands once the door was closed behind us.
“Are those turtles?”
“Yeah, do you want one?” I peeled the plastic wrap off and was delighted that he picked up two immediately, popping them in his mouth and humming. Barry reached for one, too, but I held it out of his reach and mock-scowled at him. He gave me puppy eyes in response, but we were interrupted by the cheers and greetings of a dozen people as we entered the main living area of the gorgeous home.
I recognized the players and Nilson’s wife, Hunter, who was still so beautiful and jumped up and down when she saw us before crossing the room to greet us. Her hair was slicked back into a very sleek low bun (my hair could never, I’ll just say that) and she had a body-hugging black dress on.
She excitedly pulled me into an embrace like I was an oldbestie instead of having just met the one time before a game. Mind you, I’m not a monster, so I hugged her back with almost matched enthusiasm.
“I’m so happy you made it!”
“Thanks for having me.”
Barry smiled, the same look of pleasure that hadn’t left his face since I told him I’d be his plus-one. He accepted a hug from Hunter, too, and he and I took turns at a few rounds of complimenting her beautiful home.
“You two are too good.” Hunter waved her hands in front of her, and I noticed she had a new set of festive nails, probably also done by the WAG she told me about last time. Nilson made his appearance, stepping up behind his wife while holding a squirming child, somewhere between three and six, I could really never tell with these things. I would probably get better at guessing ages when I had my own little wiggler.
“Good to see you, Hannah,” Nilson said. He offered me a fist bump instead of a hug, probably because of the child. “This is Mina.”
The little girl in his arms lowered her face, shy only for a moment before she spotted my stomach and snapped to attention and pointed right at it.
“You got a baby in your tummy,” she said with authority. My heart grew maybe fourteen sizes.
“I do.” I smiled at the girl. “I like your red dress.”
She gasped again, her excitement a delight to me.
